The United Nations refugee agency calls for urgent additional support to help some 5.4 million drought-affected people in Somalia, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a press release on Tuesday
UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th June, 2019) The United Nations refugee agency calls for urgent additional support to help some 5.4 million drought-affected people in Somalia, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a press release on Tuesday."Ahead of World Environment Day tomorrow, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling for urgent additional support to help people affected and displaced by drought in Somalia. An estimated 5.4 million people are likely to be food insecure by July," the release said.
In May, aid agencies issued an urgent appeal for $710 million to assist some 4.5 million people affected by the drought, but only 20 percent of the plan has been funded, the release noted.
Below average rainy seasons in October-December 2018 and April-June 2019, have caused drought in many parts of Somalia. UNHCR estimates that some 2.2 million people will become severely food insecure if emergency action is not taken, the release explained.
The areas of Sanaag, Sool, Awdal, Bari, Nugaal, Mudug, Galgadud, and Hiran are among those worst affected by drought, the release added.
According to the UNHCR, since the beginning of the year, over 49,000 people were forced to flee their homes to find food, water and aid in urban areas, with 7,000 individuals displaced in May alone.
Some 2.6 million people in Somalia are already internally displaced due to climatic shocks and conflict that complicates the displacement in the African country.
Somalia has been engulfed in violence ever since a civil war erupted between clan-based armed factions in the early 1990s. Al-Shabaab militants, who have sworn allegiance to the al-Qaeda terror group (banned in Russia), are staging numerous attacks across the country in an attempt to impose Islamic law.
